Getting financial help with college was one of the major reasons why Benjamin Armstrong joined the Marine Corps. But when the veteran of both the Iraq and Afghanistan wars finally started using the G.I. Bill to attend Texas State University in 2004, he accidentally missed out on the Marine Corps College Fund, which would have paid $12,000 toward his education.

“I was not prepared at all” to make the best use of the military’s financial aid, Armstrong says.

After a few early stumbles, Armstrong earned his bachelor’s degree in 2008 and his master’s in 2011. And since G.I. Bill covered the vast majority of the costs, Armstrong finished school with minimal student loan debt.

“I basically got two degrees for $2,000” in student loans, he says. “I just feel blessed and excited.”

Costs Are Rising

Americans owe more than $1 trillion in student loans, more than they’ve charged on their credit cards.

But there are ways for students of all ages to earn college degrees without racking up mountains of debt. Some, like the G.I. Bill, are well-known, and have been around for generations. Others, including law school programs that wipe away graduates’ student loans in return for work in the public interest, may be less well-known but just as helpful.

Whatever the mechanism, most of these alternative ways of paying for college share a similar goal: Helping young people enjoy the opportunities that come with having a college degree without the crushing debt that prevents many graduates from enjoying those opportunities.

“We want to make sure that concerns about debt or income are not stopping any of our students from going out and changing the world in whatever way they choose,” says Janet Conroy, a spokeswoman for the Yale Law School, which offers a generous loan repayment program for graduates who pursue low-paying jobs or public service.

Adam Levin, chairman and co-founder of Credit.com, recently proposed a new National Service Corps that would help hundreds of thousands of young Americans pay for college in exchange for two years of service to their country. While larger and broader in scope than any existing service program, there are many precedents for this kind of aid. Here are some of the more popular programs people already use to help pay for college and graduate school.

Sign up for our weekly newsletter.

Contributing writer for Credit.com, Chris graduated with honors from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, and has reported for a number of publications including The New York Times, TIME magazine and Popular Mechanics.

Comments on articles and responses to those comments are not provided or commissioned by a bank advertiser. Responses have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by a bank advertiser. It is not a bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.

Please note that our comments are moderated, so it may take a little time before you see them on the page. Thanks for your patience.

The want their money back? I’ve been paying mine back every month. I pay $160.00/ month and since 2005 I only managed to pay a little over $3000.00 in principle back. 18 trillion in back debt an the government acts like they will not be able to pay their employees. If I knew then what I know now I never would have borrowed from the government. I feel like I’m giving money to a drug addict. The money will be wasted, then they will ask for more, giving me some story about what they did with the money and how it’s really not their fault, so if you could please make another payment……
Fiduciary Responsibility. If the GOV was a person they would be on welfare. Fiduciary Responsibility is used every time I give them money. Fiduciary Responsibility, learn it, know it, live it.

Certain credit cards and other financial products mentioned in this and other sponsored content on Credit.com are Partners with Credit.com. Credit.com receives compensation if our users apply for and ultimately sign up for any financial products or cards offered.

Hello, Reader!

Thanks for checking out Credit.com. We hope you find the site and the journalism we produce useful. We wanted to take some time to tell you a bit about ourselves.

Our People

The Credit.com editorial team is staffed by a team of editors and reporters, each with many years of financial reporting experience. We’ve worked for places like the New York Times, American Banker, Frontline, TheStreet.com, Business Insider, ABC News, NBC News, CNBC and many others. We also employ a few freelancers and more than 50 contributors (these are typically subject matter experts from the worlds of finance, academia, politics, business and elsewhere).

Our Reporting

We take great pains to ensure that the articles, video and graphics you see on Credit.com are thoroughly reported and fact-checked. Each story is read by two separate editors, and we adhere to the highest editorial standards. We’re not perfect, however, and if you see something that you think is wrong, please email us at editorial team [at] credit [dot] com,

The Credit.com editorial team is committed to providing our readers and viewers with sound, well-reported and understandable information designed to inform and empower. We won’t tell you what to do. We will, however, do our best to explain the consequences of various actions, thereby arming you with the information you need to make decisions that are in your best interests. We also write about things relating to money and finance we think are interesting and want to share.

In addition to appearing on Credit.com, our articles are syndicated to dozens of other news sites. We have more than 100 partners, including MSN, ABC News, CBS News, Yahoo, Marketwatch, Scripps, Money Magazine and many others. This network operates similarly to the Associated Press or Reuters, except we focus almost exclusively on issues relating to personal finance. These are not advertorial or paid placements, rather we provide these articles to our partners in most cases for free. These relationships create more awareness of Credit.com in general and they result in more traffic to us as well.

Our Business Model

Credit.com’s journalism is largely supported by an e-commerce business model. Rather than rely on revenue from display ad impressions, Credit.com maintains a financial marketplace separate from its editorial pages. When someone navigates to those pages, and applies for a credit card, for example, Credit.com will get paid what is essentially a finder’s fee if that person ends up getting the card. That doesn’t mean, however, that our editorial decisions are informed by the products available in our marketplace. The editorial team chooses what to write about and how to write about it independently of the decisions and priorities of the business side of the company. In fact, we maintain a strict and important firewall between the editorial and business departments. Our mission as journalists is to serve the reader, not the advertiser. In that sense, we are no different from any other news organization that is supported by ad revenue.

Visitors to Credit.com are also able to register for a free Credit.com account, which gives them access to a tool called The Credit Report Card. This tool provides users with two free credit scores and a breakdown of the information in their Experian credit report, updated twice monthly. Again, this tool is entirely free, and we mention that frequently in our articles, because we think that it’s a good thing for users to have access to data like this. Separate from its educational value, there is also a business angle to the Credit Report Card. Registered users can be matched with products and services for which they are most likely to qualify. In other words, if you register and you find that your credit is less than stellar, Credit.com won’t recommend a high-end platinum credit card that requires an excellent credit score You’d likely get rejected, and that’s no good for you or Credit.com. You’d be no closer to getting a product you need, there’d be a wasted inquiry on your credit report, and Credit.com wouldn’t get paid. These are essentially what are commonly referred to as "targeted ads" in the world of the Internet. Despite all of this, however, even if you never apply for any product, the Credit Report Card will remain free, and none of this will impact how the editorial team reports on credit and credit scores.

Your Stories

Lastly, much of what we do is informed by our own experiences as well as the experiences of our readers. We want to tell your stories if you’re interested in sharing them. Please email us at story ideas [at] credit [dot] com with ideas or visit us on Facebook or Twitter.